1.3.9-Pilferingapples
Brick!Club, Bk 1:Fantine Vol. 3 Ch.9: Joyful End of Joy or, A Merry End to Happiness (Denny) or, We Can’t Say Hugo Didn’t Warn Us! Really most books hauling out a chapter title like this would just be melodramatic, but this is if anything rather underselling the plot. I guess ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO READ FROM HERE seemed a little overblown even to Hugo. I like the letter- it’s playgul and still manages to convey the essence of Tholomyes’(Dahlia’s right, it totally reeks of Tholomyes) disdain. “Parents? Ugh, like you hussies know what parents are. Let me explain how real people work.” A nice reminder about Favorite knowing how to read, which also reminds me how rare that would have been- and the laughing. The laughing kills me, because Fantine can’t even show her distress; she’s not with friends here, she’s just in public with people she’s met. She has to keep a face up for an hour. She’s worse than alone, she’d be better off with strangers. The last paragraph, ugh. That’s one of those I remembered all the time in between readings. It doesn’t hurt less now. A question, though- all my translations say she ‘had a child’. Should I take that as “she was pregnant”, though? because otherwise Cosette’s already Happened, and that seems like something that might have been mentioned before? Surely Favourite’s mercenary senses would have let her inform Fantine that this was a way to get money out Tholomyes if she’s seen Fantine showing signs of pregnancy? And Tholomyes would have bolted already if he’d even suspected a pregnancy? But it all just says “had a child” and I don’t care where you think life starts in this context, THERE ARE SOME PRACTICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PREGNANCY AND ‘A CHILD’ I am trying to figure out a timeline for the next chapters, What is happening, help. Commentary Boniferhasty I thought it meant Cosette already existed, because in the next part it mentions 10 months have passed, but Cosette’s already 2 years old. margolotta Cosette was two-three years old in the next chapter, which happened in1818. Her real name, Euphrasie, most likely came from her dad. Boniferhasty I know I already made an answer to this re: 10 months having passed and Cosette already being two, lol - but then I just remember that there’s also a ‘deleted’ chapter in which the Pontmercy maid (or friend of the maid?) borrows Cosette from the Thenardiers to go begging, and they see Tholomyes getting married. Cosette then calls out “daddy” to him, and he is mortified. So I think we are supposed to understand that Tholomyes knew about Cosette’s existence and Hugo just forgot to mention it to us until now. Makes me wonder who was taking care of the child while Fantine was out with her fake friends? Sarah1281 (reply to Boniferhasty) I feel that while Tholomyes was around throwing money at everyone he was paying for some lower-class woman to watch Cosette at least while he was taking Fantine out. Thosewhodontweep Cosette is definitely alive at this point. She would have been about a year old, because she’s two in the next chapter, which takes place in ten months. Where exactly Cosette was while Fantine was out having fun is left ambiguous, as is her father’s reaction to her conception and birth. And as a side note, Cosette comes from Chosette, which is French for “little thing” (une chose= a thing, the ending is a diminutive). It’s basically the equivalent of her being called “little one”. Gascon-en-exile The silly repetitive title is Hugo’s fault. Never let it be said that the guy didn’t delight in irony, perhaps the second most prominent trait he has in common with Grantaire (the first being, of course, having a massive hard-on for Enjolras). What strikes me the most about the letter is how it justifies their abandonment on the grounds of social normativity, even to the extent that “''Il importe à la patrie que nous soyons, comme tout le monde…''" ("It is necessary for the country that we be, like everyone…"). It’s a sarcastic and superficial parallel to the Amis, who are building furniture walls and fighting the government and being gay “''à la patrie,” all of which are very socially non-normative but serve higher ends than Tholomyès and co.’s selfish seeking after respectability. They’ve had their fun in Paris living it up with their mistresses, and presumably their parents are now pestering them to find a career, settle down, and marry respectable women. I guess it’s a good thing that the Amis died when they did, lest most of them be forced into middle class normality…. Back in their introductory chapter it’s noted that Favourite has her own house and that her father had money and no wife or legitimate children to inherit it, and one can suppose from their reactions here that Dahlia and Zéphine are similarly in financially stable situations. Either Tholomyès is not aware that Fantine was not as fortunate, or he just doesn’t care. The original is just as vague about whether Cosette has already been born, though she probably has been considering that if she were born the year Fantine was abandoned she’d only be 15 at the time of the barricades. Hopefully she’s a few years older than that, or otherwise Marius would come across as even creepier. I’ve no idea how Fantine was able to keep the pregnancy and the child a secret, though…plot hole? '''Pilferingapples (reply to Gascon-en-exile)' Oh, WOW. Yes, good call on the boys fleeing under the excuse of ‘society needs us’. The horrible thing is it sort of does; at least, it needs them to be these wretched manipulators. If they were going to stick around their mistresses they’d have to make a personal protest out of it, and if everyone did that, whatever would the country do? Shocking, I tell you. Probably safe to assume Felix knew Fantine’s economic situation exactly. That may have been part of why he chose her— so much easier to control someone with no financial power of her own? UGH THOLOMYES WHY DO YOU HAPPEN. But yes, I like this parallel, and this idea. How many of the horrible things in this book happen because people are trying to be Respectable instead of good or kind? (and what does a devout revolutionary do when their parents start making setling-down noises? Give them an abyssal glare? Adopt Paris? Quietly move in with your best friend and hope they take a hint without needing it gift-wrapped? )